On June 29 the General Assembly, through Knox probably, drew up the address to the Queen, threatening her and the country with the wrath of God on her Mass, which, she is assured, is peculiarly distasteful to the Deity.  The brethren are deeply disappointed that she does not attend their sermons, and ventures to prefer “your ain preconceived vain opinion.”  They insist that adulterers must be punished with death, and they return to their demands for the poor and the preachers.  A new rising is threatened if wicked men trouble the ministers and disobey the Superintendents.

Lethington and Knox had one of their usual disputes over this manifesto; the Secretary drew up another.  “Here be many fair words,” said the Queen on reading it; “I cannot tell what the hearts are.” {220a} She later found out the nature of Lethington’s heart, a pretty black one.  The excesses of the Guises in France were now the excuse or cause of the postponement of Elizabeth’s meeting with Mary.  The Queen therefore now undertook a northern progress, which had been arranged for in January, about the time when Lord James was made Earl of Moray. {220b}

He could not “brook” the Earldom of Moray before the Earl of Huntly was put down, Huntly being a kind of petty king in the east and north.  There is every reason to suppose that Mary understood and utterly distrusted Huntly, who, though the chief Catholic in the country, had been a traitor whenever occasion served for many a year.  One of his sons, John, in July, wounded an Ogilvy in Edinburgh in a quarrel over property.  This affair was so managed as to drive Huntly into open rebellion, neither Mary nor her brother being sorry to take the opportunity.

The business of the ruin of Huntly has seemed more of a mystery to historians than it was, though an attack by a Catholic princess on her most powerful Catholic subject does need explanation.  But Randolph was with Mary during the whole expedition, and his despatches are better evidence than the fables of Buchanan and the surmises of Knox and Mr. Froude.  Huntly had been out of favour ever since Lord James obtained the coveted Earldom of Moray in January, and he was thought to be opposed to Mary’s visit to Elizabeth.  Since January, the Queen had been bent on a northern progress.  Probably the Archbishop of St. Andrews, as reported by Knox, rightly guessed the motives.  At table he said, “The Queen has gone into the north, belike to seek disobedience; she may perhaps find the thing that she seeks.” {221a} She wanted a quarrel with Huntly, and a quarrel she found.  Her northward expedition, says Randolph, “is rather devised by herself than greatly approved by her Council.”  She would not visit Huntly at Strathbogie, contrary to the advice of her Council; his son, who wounded Ogilvy, had broken prison, and refused to enter himself at Stirling Castle.  Huntly then supported his sons in rebellion, while Bothwell broke prison and fortified himself in Hermitage